Developer hopes to start building social housing at Little Mountain by May

Joo Kim Tiah, president of Holborn Group, which is developing the Little Mountain site near Queen Elizabeth Park with up to 1,500 condo and rental units, pictured on Sept. 24, 2012.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider
, PNG

VANCOUVER -- The company developing a prime site at Little Mountain hopes to start construction on 224 units of social housing by next May.

Joo Kim Tiah, president of Holborn Group, said work on the site’s first building could start by next spring following six months of soil remediation. (A number of underground oil tanks are buried on the site. They have to be removed and the soil aerated to eliminate hydrocarbons.)

“The truth is we are trying to build the social housing as soon as possible,” Tiah said in an interview. “We’re aiming for it to start in May of next year. That’s our target.”

Council adopted a policy statement in June requiring the replacement of 224 social housing units in the first phase of the project.

Most of the buildings at Little Mountain were demolished in 2009, and B.C. Housing moved all but four of the former residents to other subsidized housing. The remaining residents are in the one building on the 6.2-hectare site by Queen Elizabeth Park and bounded by 33rd Avenue and Main Street.

Tiah said while Holborn wants to have all the rezoning completed by next year, he said that he hopes construction could start in May on the social housing, even if all the rezoning for the entire site is not completed by then.

If all the social housing was in one building, it could take up to two years until it is completed and former residents could move back into the development replacing what was the first large-scale social housing project in Vancouver when it opened in 1954. But Tiah said he didn’t want to commit to a firm timeline as some social housing units could be distributed to other buildings and take longer to be completed.

“It is a significant site. It is going to take time. You want to make sure you get it right,” he said in the Little Mountain community office at 4829 Main.

“We want to be careful, we want to be conscientious, we want to do a good job.”

Tiah, the heir to a Malaysian development family, said Holborn is here for the long term.

“It will be sustainable, mixed and balanced development. This location is pretty much the centre of Vancouver. We are very respectful of its history and the community that has lived here in the past. We really want to do a good job here. We’re excited about getting going.”

Following discussions between Holborn and the city after the adoption of the Little Mountain policy statement in June, total units on the site have been reduced by 200 to 1,600. Buildings will be in stepped towers up to 12 storeys, with most being three to eight stories in height, down from four to 10.

Last week, The Vancouver Sun ran a story that quoted developer and consultant Michael Geller, who attributed the reason for the delay on the Little Mountain project to Holborn’s “lack of experience” and its unfamiliarity with “how to do business here.”

Tiah said he was “quite concerned” about Geller’s remarks.

“I felt those were remarks that could be quite misleading and might be damaging to the process, the project and to the company from a business standpoint,” he said.

“I don’t want this issue to escalate further. I don’t want to be seen as retaliating against him. I don’t know how to put it in a nicer way — but I felt his remarks were not very nice, not very responsible, and not warranted, especially from someone like him who is part of the development community.”

Another high-profile project Holborn is developing is at 1151 West Georgia at Thurlow. Construction has started on a 63-storey twisting tower designed by the late Arthur Erickson and Tiah said Holborn aims to finish the building in early 2016.

According to the policy report on Little Mountain, several community facilities will be built on the site from what could be up to $32.8 million in community contributions and development charges from Holborn. A new $3-million Little Mountain Neighbourhood House will have 12,000 square feet of space, more than six times the size of the existing neighbourhood house. The report says that $10 million will be allocated to build a daycare for 69 children and to cover its operational costs for 20 years.

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